Luton’s win at Kenilworth Road was quite a jolt. We may well have fared better (than them) since then and we are stronger now in terms of personnel.

Obviously they have not sustained their early season form and have a poor record away to top-half teams with most of their points versus lower half clubs.

We are now needing a win whoever our opponents may be and this encounter could not be tougher.

They have been better away from home than most and beat Plymouth 3-0, so it will be a severe test.

We need to break out of this mini-slump and 2-0 win with Butler scoring number 1 and a crowd of 6,000 is my prediction.

Thanks, BVZ for starting this during "my wake time" here in Oregon - otherwise I'd have to get up early tomorrow! I'm going with 3-1 to the Rovers with Rowe scoring and a crowd of 7599

Morning All,
No need to panic yet, although we have dropped points the consensus I see that we are still performing well as a team and putting in a shift at the coalface.
Newport ( Cleethorpes Beach ) , Carlisle ( failure to convert chances, dodgy ref and the heartbeat of our centre back pairing injured ).
Luton will be a tough task but we are back at Fortress Keepmoat where we fear no foe.
Looks like Butler / Baudry are back which will be a massive lift to the team both in defence and leaders on the pitch.
They will be needed as Danny Hylton is scoring almost a goal a game at the minute.
However I'm going for a Rovers 2-1 victory.
Copps to score first
Crowd 7425.

Having read about Luton ' s likely away support I'll up my crowd number to 7250.

Re Hylton, they managed to hold on to him in January and I suppose they do have potential to support a Championship team at least. A real danger.

Think our mini dip in results will carry on today,going rovers1 luton2 sorry. Rowe to score and crowd 7352

Thanks Bvz I had it all wrote out ready to post last night I thought I had put it up It's up anyway

Lads, don't forget that the Luton fans will be worried about coming to play us.
They are not the invincibles that some of us are concerned about and they have lost three of their last ten games.
So have Plymouth, Carlisle, Portsmouth and Wycombe.
Ourselves, Mansfield and Exeter are the more consistent teams at the top of the table, only one loss in the last ten.
I remember a bit of panic after we lost at Plymouth and look what happened after that.
We are still the best team in the division and i still expect us to finish top.
However, there is no such thing as a guaranteed win and i suppose we will lose again before the season is over but then again, so will everyone else.
Time to be strong lads, time to be strong.

3-1 Doncaster, 7217, Marquis to score first. Glad to have Butler and Baudry back- think Butler might get us a goal too.

3-1 to the lads - expecting us to get back on track today. Baudry with the first goal. 7483 in attendance.

Spoke to a few Luton fans in bar. They'd be happy with a draw.

For those who may be interested:
We set off like a train and really pushed Luton back.
However they were a very good and well organised side and it was difficult to create many scoring opportunities.
Rowe came closest but his powerful shot was deflected over the bar.
Williams also had a good header deflected by a defender, over the bar for a corner.
Luton were always in the game but without really making me think they might score.
They were also very physical , helped by yet another shocking refereeing performance that didn't stop them persistently fouling.
After they went ahead a Luton player who had been pulled up for offside, kicked the ball off the pitch and down the NE tunnel into the concourse.
Not even a card for that.
Credit should go to our boys for getting back into the game after going behind, a great run and finish by Alfie May.
If this is a slump I am not too worried because we are playing really well and will soon get back to winning ways.
No damage done today with only Carlisle of the top teams winning.
Still eleven points clear of fourth but one game less left to play.
Our position is strengthened.

Thanks Hound. The highlights showed that we had the class and Luton were full of fight, literally. The ref was much criticised by Biltcliffe (welcome back!) and the fact that he favoured Luton was borne out by their manager praising him!!! However he still had the pathetic excuse that he thought that there was a foul on one of their players leading up to the equaliser. He fell over and lost the ball when we regained possession two or three passes before May's shot. No one appeared to complain at the time, so no doubt he analysed the video in depth to see if he could find some excuse.

So rather like the previous 3 games we looked good yet did not seem to get the breaks. Time our luck changed eh?

On what I have seen, Albi's view that "we lacked speed, skill and grit" was not too evident, except perhaps the grit element.

(Did you see that poor Stuckmann saved a penalty for Chesterfield and then gifted the opposition a goal?)

Yes Don, I saw that on the CH5 show.
Having slept on the performance I woke this morning thinking that all is well at DRFC.
My main hope for next week is that we go back to a back four which is what was happening when we had the run of wins.

Still fuming at the so called ref. What an absolute unless (_ _ _ _ ).

Crikey zigger, we have had some bad ones haven't we, but this one was as bad as you could ever imagine.
The number of times that Luton players "bumped" our players while the ball was in the air which went unpunished was amazing.
The time their player was called back for offside then smashed the ball off the pitch and down the NE tunnel into the concourse and got away without a booking was ridiculous.
Luton took a good two minutes with their goal celebration as well.
add on time should have been 8 or 9 minutes.

DF has supposedly reported the deliberate elbow in the face by Hylton on Marquis.

If it were PL, retrospective action would be possible. In
L2 no one cares.

Maybe something could be done if the video evidence is good enough.
Look at how mardy Plymouth ( just because they lost?) reported the Accrington player for pushing that ball boy over.